Fourth degree. Two forms are admissible; in the former the face is painted red, with a stripe of green extended diagonally across it from the upper part of the left temporal region to the lower part of the right cheek. In the latter the face is painted red with two short, horizontal parallel green bars across the forehead.
Either of these may be adopted as a sign of mourning by a man whose deceased son had been intended for the priesthood of the Grand Medicine Society.
The religious and ceremonial use of the color red by the New Zealanders is mentioned by Taylor (d):
Closely connected with religion, was the feeling they entertained for the Kura, or Red Paint, which was the sacred color; their idols, Pataka, sacred stages for the dead, and for offerings or sacrifices, Urupa graves, chief’s houses, and war canoes, were all thus painted.
The way of rendering anything tapu was by making it red. When a person died, his house was thus colored; when the tapu was laid on anything, the chief erected a post and painted it with the kura; wherever a corpse rested, some memorial was set up, oftentimes the nearest stone, rock, or tree served as a monument; but whatever object was selected, it was sure to be made red. If the corpse were conveyed by water, wherever they landed a similar token was left; and when it reached its destination, the canoe was dragged on shore, thus distinguished, and abandoned. When the hahunga took place, the scraped bones of the chief, thus ornamented, and wrapped in a red-stained mat, were deposited in a box or bowl, smeared with the sacred color, and placed in a tomb. Near his final resting place a lofty and elaborately carved monument was erected to his memory; this was called he tiki, which was also thus colored.
In former times the chief anointed his entire person with red ocher; when fully dressed on state occasions, both he and his wives had red paint and oil poured upon the crown of the head and forehead, which gave them a gory appearance, as though their skulls had been cleft asunder.
Mr. S. Gason reports in Worsnop, op. cit.:
On the Cooper, Herbert, and Diamentina rivers of the North there are no paintings in caves, but in special corroborees the bodies of the leading dancers are beautifully painted with every imaginable color, representing man, woman, animals, birds, and reptiles, the outlines being nearly faultless, and in proportion, independent of the blending of the colors.
These paintings take about seven or eight hours’ hard tedious work for two men, one in front, the other at the back of the man who is to be painted, and when these men who are painted display themselves, surrounded by bright fires and rude torches, it has an enchanting effect to the others. After the ceremony is over, the paintings are allowed to be examined, and the artists congratulated or criticised.
At the other ceremonies, after returning from “Bookatoo” (red ocher expedition), they paint a few of their dancers with all the colors of the rainbow, the outlines showing all the principal species of snakes. They are well drawn and colored, and take many hours of labor to complete.